Richard Thomas is part of the family in 'The Humans'

Wednesday

Mar 7, 2018 at 8:00 AMMar 12, 2018 at 3:38 PM

By R. Scott Reedy Correspondent

Actor Richard Thomas found his greatest fame on television, playing John-Boy on the hit 1970s series “The Waltons.”

Sixty years after making his Broadway debut as Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s youngest child, John, in “Sunrise at Campobello,” however, and with many more film and television credits to his name, Thomas always makes time for the theater.

Indeed, he will be on stage in Boston next week headlining the national tour of “The Humans,” which opens a two-week run at the Boch Shubert Theatre on March 13.

“I had just finished first grade when I landed ‘Sunrise at Campobello.’ It was James Earl Jones’ Broadway debut too, and we made our first entrance together.

“Our characters were supposed to be coming in from swimming. We wore these old, heavy, wool bathing suits and they wet us down just before we went on. It was quite an experience,” recalls Thomas.

A dozen more Broadway shows have followed for the performer who last played Boston in 2006 in the national tour of “12 Angry Men” at the Colonial Theatre.

“Touring was virtually always a major part of every theater actor’s life. I did straw-hat tours in childhood, but those are gone. That, though, was very different from the big national tours. Today, most of those are musicals.

“So it is deeply gratifying to bring a new, really great play like ‘The Humans’ out on tour to the public. That it’s so rare these days just makes this whole experience so much more significant,” explained Thomas by telephone recently from his home in New York.

Written by Stephen Karam (“Sons of the Prophet,” “Speech and Debate”), “The Humans” details the varying degrees of tumult roiling through a middle-class American family as they gather for Thanksgiving dinner.

Winner of four 2016 Tony Awards including Best Play, and a 2016 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the play had its world premiere at Chicago’s American Theater Company in 2014. A Roundabout Theatre Company production opened off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre in the fall of 2015.

That production, directed by Joe Mantello, who also helms the national tour, transferred to Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre, opening on February 18, 2016, and moving to the much larger Schoenfeld Theatre in August of that year, where it ran until January 15, 2017.

“When I saw it in New York, I was just astonished by this play. It is the most wonderful piece of writing,” says Thomas. “The way we are doing it is with a very close, intimately revealed reading of the text, which allows for a lot of insight into the writing.”

And insight as well into the Blake family, who have assembled at the lower-Manhattan apartment of daughter Brigid Blake (Daisy Eagan) and her boyfriend Richard (Luis Vega). The guests include Brigid’s parents, Erik (Thomas) and Deirdre Blake (Pamela Reed), their other daughter, Aimee (Scituate native Therese Plaehn), and Erik’s mother, Fiona “Momo” (Lauren Klein), who has Alzheimer’s.

“The six voices with all the overlapping language have to be completely specific and precise. There is nothing casual about it from the actors’ perspective, but it has to give the illusion of informality and naturalness. It was a challenge to learn,” acknowledges the 66-year-old.

“This plays deals with generational differences, illness, and unemployment with compassion, humanity, and really beautiful comedy, too,” says Thomas. “The humor is based on recognition. The audience sees something it relates to and it makes them laugh.”

Some of those laughs come from Thomas’s character, a patriarch struggling to accept a host of changes within his family and society.

“I like Erik very much and so I want the audience to see him clearly. He has the exterior of a curmudgeonly character, but he kids a lot, too. And he is devoted to his family.

“To play a character not looking to win a popularity contest is a lot of fun. That he is a non-patrician type is great, too. I love playing his bedrock sensibilities.”

The father of five, Thomas – whose parents, Barbara Fallis and Richard S. Thomas, were both dancers with the New York City Ballet – has been married to his second wife, Georgiana Bischoff, since 1994.

“The most gratifying thing is when people come up to me at the stage door after a show and say, ‘You remind me of my Dad.’ I always ask, ‘Is that good or bad?’ The answer is usually ‘Both.’”

Currently seen as FBI Special Agent Frank Gaad on the Cold War-set “The Americans” on FX, Thomas earned a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play for last season’s revival of “The Little Foxes.” He doesn’t mind a bit, however, when stage-door conversations turn to life on Walton’s Mountain.

“Oh God, it would be stupid for me to mind that. I’m very proud of ‘The Waltons.’ It was a quality show and it had a huge audience. The series gave me leverage for everything I’ve done in my career since.”

Created by Earl Hamner, Jr., the series about a Depression-era family living in rural Virginia earned Thomas the 1973 Emmy Award for Lead Actor in a Drama Series and lasting friendships with his co-stars.